Lochte Tops Phelps in 100 Fly Final at 2014 Mesa Grand Prix

Make sure to keep this page open as we’ll be constantly updating a live recap of finals.

Headlining tonight, Michael Phelps will be returning for his first final since the London Olympics after taking the top seed this morning in the 100m fly with a 52.84. None other than Ryan Lochte took the second seed, meaning we’re going to be able to watch Phelps and Lochte go head-to-head again as they swim beside each other in tonight’s final.

The first final of the night, the women’s 10om freestyle, is absolutely packed with talent. Just to name-drop the field: Simone Manuel, Allison Schmitt, Amanda Weir, Natalie Coughlin, Megan Romano, Katie Ledecky Margo Geer, and Cheyenne Coffman will all be vying for that top spot tonight. The amount of international talent in this field is outstanding, and should make for a good race.

The men’s 100m freestyle final is shaping up to be a good one after some good prelims swims. Nathan Adrian was the only swimmer to crack the 50 second mark this morning grabbing the top spot in 49.98. Look for Lochte to try and make a move, displaying some of his new sprint freestyle techniques that he’s been developing in North Carolina. Also in the race will be Jimmy Feigen, Conor Dwyer, Roland Schoeman, and Josh Schneider.

Micah Lawrence and Breeja Larson should make tonight’s 200m breaststroke final interesting as they both posted fairly similar times in prelims. Lawrence was the only one to dip under 2:30 with a 2:28.37. Larson was just over two seconds behind her.

Mike Alexandrov and Azad Al-Barazi will be the two favorites going into tonight’s mens 200m breaststroke.

Also worth a definite watch is the women’s 400m freestyle featuring freestyle star Katie Ledecky. Allison Schmitt and Lotte Friis will both be in tonight’s final as well, so look for them to make things interesting.

Conor Dwyer is the favorite heading into the men’s 400m freestyle, but should expect some stiff competition from Tyler Clary, Michael McBroom, and Micahel Weiss.

ALL THE LINKS YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE 2014 MESA GRAND PRIX

• Live results
• Live video (here once meet begins)
• Psych Sheet (Updated 4/23)
• Thursday, April 24-Saturday, April 26
• Prelims 9AM/Finals 5PM (Pacific Time)
• Current Grand Prix points standings after 3 events
• Full preview: here

WOMEN’S 100 FREESTYLE

31-year old veteran Natalie Coughlin kicked off the women’s 100m freestyle with a strong start, leading the field to the wall in 26.16 – very similar to how she paced her prelims swim.

MEN’S 100 FREESTYLE

This race was all about Nathan Adrian. Adrian exploded off the start and gave himself the lead within the first five seconds of the race. Keeping somewhat pace with him in the first 50 was Roland Schoeman, but Adrian was first at the turn touching in at 23.00 on his feet. Lochte came off the wall with a great underwater dolphin kick, but wasn’t able to put himself in competition with Adrian, who smoked the rest of the field by over a full second touching the wall in 48.23.

In his post-race interview, when Rowdy Gaines pointed out that Adrian went into his ‘dig for the wall’ technique earlier than he normally does, Adrian said it wasn’t really a plan, but that in-season meets are a good place to try those things. It seemed to work out, as this swim bumped him to 3rd in the world this year, and as the fastest swimmer who hasn’t had a national championship meet yet.

Adrian didn’t look all that smooth at the end of this 100 free, but the power he was generating was palpable to a spectator.

Schoeman finished second in 49.39. Connor Dwyer was third in 49.57, followed by Lochte who used more of a straight arm technique than we’ve seen from him in the past to place 4th in 49.68.

Darian Townsend, a local who trains at Tucson Ford, placed 5th in 49.88, followed by Jimmy Feigen(49.93), Josh Schneider (50.53), and Matt Lindebauer(50.60). Lindenbauer from Louisville at 20 years old was the youngest swimmer in this A-Final by about four years.

Stanford post-grad Alex Coville won the B-Final in 50.08.

WOMEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE

Alia Atkinson stole the show tonight in the 200m breaststroke leading from start to finish. Atkinson is a former NCAA Champion in the 200, but as a professional swimmer has had more success in the breaststroke sprints. Atkinson went out in a 33.57, and maintained consistent splits around 36-38 seconds for the remaining 50′s. What’s most impressive is that Atkinson had a body length lead over second place finisher Micah Lawrence going into the last 100, but managed to pull away further despite being more of a front half, sprint swimmer

The finishing time of 2:25.52 was a lifetime best for Atkinson by about three seconds. According to Atkinson, after college, she focused a lot on improving her 100 with great success, and somehow lost the 200. This race might be an indication that we could see her having a lot more success in the 200 at international competitions in the near future.

Atkinson, who swims for Jamaica, posted  time faster than any American this year. Micah Lawrence had a good closing 50, which is her specialty, to place 2nd in 2:26.60.

Breeja Larson, who with Lawrence represented the U.S. in this race at Worlds last year, was a 2:28.87 for 3rd, as this final brough a lot more fireworks than a relatively lackluster prelim heat.

Utah freshman Stina Colleou, a native of Norway, held up her good prelims swim fairly well with a 2:31.58 for 5th. Of note, another former NCAA Champion Caitlin Leverenz placed 7th in 2:33.51.

SwimMAC’s Katie Meili torched the B-Final in 2:33.23, a much better swim than she had in the morning in all facets.

MEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE

With some key figures missing in the 200m breaststroke, it opened up tonight’s final to some new faces. The race was in the middle of the pool through its entirety with Mike Alexandrov taking the lead after the first 50 in 30.09.

WOMEN’S 400 FREESTYLE

In what seems to be a trend tonight, Katie Ledecky won the women’s 400m freestyle in start-to-finish fashion in a new junior world record of 4:03.84. That improved upon her own official record of 4:05.27 from prelims, though it was still four seconds slower than her personal best.

Ledecky already swam one final tonight, the 100 free, and showed off her range in what she called a “long sprint” after the race. In tonight’s final she was a little slower on the first 100m then this morning’s prelim, but made up for it during her last 200m. See the splits below.

KEDECKY’S  PRELIMS SPLITS: 58.38, 1:01.81, 1:02.51, 1:02.56

KEDECKY’S FINALS SPLITS: 58.58, 1:00.23, 1:02.26, 1:01.77

Clearly by analyzing these splits you can see that Ledecky was out a little slower during that first 100m, but her second 100 and fourth 100 really kicked in to give her a stronger swim tonight. Noteably, Ledecky seems be gaining a little more speed in the short races as she gets older, which should continue to help her in distance and middle distance races.

That swim ties Katie Ledecky with Mireia Belmonte-Garcia for the world-leader in 2014.

There wasn’t really much of a race for the 17-year old champion, but NBAC’s Gillian Ryan took 2nd in 4:08.51 to lead five NBAC swimmers in this A-Final. 16-year old Becca Mann was 3rd in 4:08.71, and was able to hold off University of Virginia freshman Leah Smith, who was 4th in 4:08.81.

Andreina Pinto, part of a large Venezuelan contingent at this meet, placed 5th in 4:10.79, followed by Lotte Friis in 4:10.91. Friis hasn’t looked great since coming to train in the United States following a great Worlds last year, though changing coaches can always lead to somewhat of a transition period. We’ll have to wait and see how she tapers for the European Championships this summer to make conclusions about how year one has gone in the U.S.

Of big-picture curiosity, all 8 A-Finalists train in states on the east coast of the United States (bordering the Atlantic Ocean). That’s relatively significant in the broader swimming landscape.

Elizabeth Beisel, swimming her first final as a professional swimmer, dominated the B-Final in 4:11.93, about three seconds ahead of Chloe Sutton (4:15.17).

MEN’S 400 FREESTYLE

15-year old Sean Grieshop from Nitro Swimming in Austin led off the men’s 100m freestyle at an eager pace, taking the lead over seasoned swimmers such as Connor Dwyer, Michael McBroom, and Tyler Clary at the first 100m with a time of 55.99.

But McBroom, who seems poised for a big explosion in long course, said that he felt really good on his first 200 (much better than his back 200) and that showed in the 1:53.96 split he put up.

Dwyer was a body length behind McBroom at the halfway point, and couldn’t catch up to him going into the last 100, with McBroom winning in 3:50.87. That’s withing about a second of his lifetime best.

Toward the end of this race, McBroom began to pull away from Dwyer, and Dwyer seemed to lose the pop in his stroke as it was clear that he was hurting. Dwyer was able to hold off a hard-charging Clary, though, for 2nd place 3:53.85-3:54.47.

Crimson Aquatics’ Liam Egan, a Stanford commit, was 4th in 3:57.82, followed by Michael Weiss in 3:58.37. Aidan Burns rounded out the sub-four-minute group, with Grieshop fading all the way back to 7th in 4:00.26.

Matthew Hirschberger won the B-Final in 3:59.61.

WOMEN’S 100 BUTTERFLY

Claire Donahue took a big win in the 100m fly with a time of 59.05 in her return from a three-week training trip to New Zealand. After training nearly non-stop at Western Kentucky from the time she was 18 until earlier this year, she’s spent a lot of time in 2014 training in other places while the WKU undergrads focus on their college training, and that seems to have done a lot for her.

MEN’S 100 BUTTERFLY

So the storybook version of the men’s 100 fly final in Phelps’ big comeback didn’t go exactly according to plan, but afterall, it’s sort of Ryan Lochte’s comeback too. Neither swimmer lept out to a big lead at the turn, and neither is really want to do so in their ideal race, Coming off of the turn, however, Lochte took command and opened up about a half-a-body length lead.

But Phelps showed the fight we all know in him, that fight that caused him to be so great as much as his talent, and with Lochte tightening up a little in the last 15 meters, Phelps made it a close race.

Lochte, however, had juts enough left for the last couple of strokes, winning in 51.93 – a time that ranks him 2nd in the world so far this year. Phelps took 2nd in 52.13.

In their post-race interview, the two were joking with each other a little bit and having some fun, which was good to see, as both had really great times. Phelps sits 5th in the world right now, .01 seconds ahead of his South African nemesis Chad le Clos.

That time for Phelps is faster than he was at any Grand Prix in the lead up to his 2012 Olympic gold medal in this race, which is a strong sign for the fitness of his comeback.

Kenyan Jason Dunford took 3rd in 53.08.

Gaines asked him about Rio, and Phelps gave one of his usual illusive answers, but did state that he was having fun getting in the pool and racing again in front of a great crowd.